Report:DialogPRO/Major Recent Updates

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Latest Manual Code revision goes live on Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) - The Derwent World Patents Index® (DWPI) manual coding system annual revision for 2013 is now complete and is being used by the editorial teams to code records appearing in the database from DWPI Update 201301 onward. The editorial team consistently applies DWPI manual codes to new inventions across all 47 authorities (soon to be increasing) covered in the database. [...] In total, 235 changes have been made to the manual coding system and scope notes. Among them are 101 new codes.

DWPI began coverage of Malaysian granted patents (MY-A documents) at the end of 2010 starting with documents published in January 2010. The data now goes back to the beginning of 2005, and this data has now started appearing in DWPI as of update 201277. It will take several weeks before the backfile data is complete.

Enhanced coverage of Thailand

Coverage of Thailand is being enhanced to include registration numbers. These numbers are a five-digit serial number and will be indicated with the patent kind code TH-R0. They will begin to appear in DWPI in early 2013.

As part of this enhancement, the date that is currently used for TH applications in DWPI will be the actual application date rather than the date of publication of the registration number as at present. The application dates can be over 10 years old and these are now starting to appear in DWPI.

New coverage of Indonesia — the 50th data source in DWPI

In early 2013, coverage of Indonesian applications (national and PCT transfers) and Simple Patents from 2010 to date will begin. This marks the 50th data source in DWPI (48 patenting authorities, Research Disclosures and International Technology Disclosures). Coverage will include DWPI titles and/or abstracts with CPI/EPI manual coding and chemical indexing for new basics.

ProQuest Connects Researchers with NEJM Content, Images and Journal Watch Newsletters - As part of a major investment in medical resources, ProQuest has expanded its long-standing relationship with one of the world’s premier sources of cutting-edge research, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Now, in addition to integration of the full-text of NEJM in its information products, plus a collection of classic images and deep index images, ProQuest will provide access to Journal Watch, the medical literature surveillance newsletter series, making this rich content easy to discover and use.

Looking ahead to 2013 - 2013 promises to be even more exhilarating as we work towards the migration of Dialog® customers to ProQuest Dialog later this year. Watch for General Manager Tim Wahlberg's New Year's message that will outline what you can anticipate in the year ahead.

I’ve been a Dialog subscriber for decades, both before and after going solo. However, I haven’t used my Dialog password in some time. Therefore, I’ve been out of the loop on a lot of the happenings in the greater world of information and was unaware of the demise of chemistry files from Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) on Dialog and on Questel. NewsBreaks Editor Paula Hane had received a heads-up from a contact in Europe and asked me for more details.
There was no news on these issues on the CAS or STN websites. Chris McCue, vice president marketing for CAS, provided the information that Dialog had made the decision to remove the files after several months of discussion.

Migration update - In his November Update, Tim Wahlberg explained how plans for the Dialog migration to ProQuest Dialog were in full swing. A migration leadership team is now hard at work on this formidable task, focusing on five main aspects to ensure a smooth, successful migration:

Back Office — making sure each customer has the correct access to licensed databases, contract terms, user accounts and more

Communications — keeping every customer abreast of the migration plan and progress as well as the customer role in the process. We will use multiple communication methods based on the variety of customer situations and needs, with the Chronolog and the Dialog service login page as core tools.

Training and Support — providing the most relevant support documentation and resources

Alert and Saved Search migration — working to migrate, translate and perform quality assurance on all legacy Dialog Alerts. Saved Searches also will be translated to the new syntax.

Key to this process is our Global Customer Support team, comprised of subject matter experts in North America and the international regions, each of whom possesses an advanced degree in their respective subject area. This is particularly important in the support of the Alert migration, including the special compliancy needs of our pharmaceutical customers.

Finally, to assist with the smooth transition, we will provide a period of parallel access to both legacy Dialog and ProQuest Dialog. During this time, customers can take full advantage of the extensive training and support materials, and also fully test Alerts to ensure they continue to produce desired results. As always, Global Customer Support will be available to assist as needed.

ERIC reload on Dialog completed - In its 2012 complete annual reload on Dialog, Education Resources Information Center Database (ERIC) (File 1) introduced additional source coverage and made some enhancements to existing content. This year also included a reload to the current Related Terms Thesaurus. Accession Numbers were reassigned using the new scheme where Accession Numbers are assigned based on the record’s Publication Date.

CPC — A New Patent Classification System - The CPC classes will begin appearing in Dialog legacy patent databases in January 2013. The search prefix for CPC will be CP= and will be available for searching in the following Dialog databases:

DWPI country coverage update — Changes to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Kind Codes - As a result of customer feedback, the kind code for Gulf Cooperation Council patents in Derwent World Patents Index® (DWPI) has been changed from B to A to reflect that this is the first stage of publication for records filed through this patent office. From update 201260 onward, all new GCC patents have the kind code A, with back-file corrections subsequently appearing to change the kind code of records already in DWPI. DWPI users are encouraged to review any current Alerts or search strategies to ensure the correct patent kind is being searched.

MEDLINE Publisher: New file on legacy Dialog - MEDLINE® Publisher (File 152), new on legacy Dialog, contains records with a status of “Publisher” extracted from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) PubMed database. A “Publisher” record in PubMed is an initial version of a record prior to its distribution by NLM as a MEDLINE record. These records subsequently change status in PubMed to “In Data Review.” When the status changes in PubMed, the records are supplied by NLM for the first time as MEDLINE records and are added to legacy Dialog MEDLINE Files 154 and 155. Until now, the Publisher status records have not been available on legacy Dialog.

MEDLINE: NLM prepares for 2013 reload - Preparation for the annual reload of MEDLINE® on Dialog (Files 154,155) is underway. MEDLINE is reloaded every year because the National Library of Medicine (NLM) re-indexes relevant documents from the whole database with changed medical terms. Toward the end of November, the NLM provided updates that contained only RT=IN PROCESS and RT=IN DATA REVIEW records (no RT=COMPLETED records with Descriptors). In mid-December there will be a hiatus in the updating of MEDLINE on Dialog while adjustments are made to install the 2013 thesaurus after which daily updating will resume. Subsequently, MEDLINE updating will continue unaffected through January/February 2013 while the backfile reload is processed. When the backfile reload is made available, descriptors in all records in the MEDLINE databases will match descriptors in the new 2013 version of the thesaurus.

November 2012

This system has been updated since our last review. During our next scheduled update, this article will be revised to include a description of the newly added content and features.

Tim Wahlberg, General Manager at Dialog and SVP at ProQuest, gave the following update in a November 2012 email about the migration process for customers from Dialog to ProQuest Dialog:[4]

In preparation for Dialog migration in 2013, our customer support organization has been organized into a global team including our subject experts from both the Knowledge Center and the training team. This unified team, called Global Customer Support, will aid customers in migration to ProQuest Dialog throughout 2013. We will draw on this global resource to continue our tradition of providing a high-quality service to ensure a smooth migration.

October 2012

This system has been updated since our last review. During our next scheduled update, this article will be revised to include a description of the newly added content and features.

Embase Alert on Dialog adds Articles in Press (AIP) records - Articles in Press records started loading in Embase® Alert (File172) on Dialog in late September. AIP records represent the earliest version of a record as it goes through the Elsevier editorial process. In most cases an Article in Press will not have volume, issue, or pagination information, and may also be missing a publication date. It will have a Title, Authors and an Abstract. This valuable literature is now being made available earlier than previously. As the Article in Press goes through the editorial process, it is replaced by a standard Embase Alert record when the full bibliographic citation information is known. The transition to a standard Embase Alert record may take a couple of days or several weeks.

Inspec reaches milestone - This month Inspec®, part of the Engineering and Technology category on ProQuest Dialog and File 2 on Dialog, reached its 13th million record — quite a milestone. In addition to this immense quantity of technical information, Inspec plans to add approximately 800,000 more records in 2013.

Find conference data in Embase - As announced in the May and August Chronolog, Elsevier, B.V. has added conference abstract records to Embase®. This collection of more than 650,000 abstracts from over 2,000 conferences published in journals and journal supplements since 2009, came to DialogClassic in July. This major enhancement brought new searchable fields to Embase, including Conference Title (CT=), Conference Location (CL=), conference start and end Date (DA=) and Conference Sponsor (SP=), as well as a new Document Type (DT=), Conference Abstract.

September 2012

This system has been updated since our last review. During our next scheduled update, this article will be revised to include a description of the newly added content and features.

The Chronolog gets a facelift - It’s here—a new look for The Chronolog, your trusted source from Dialog! We listened to and incorporated your suggestions, so The Chronolog format now makes it easier to find the information most important to you. Content and product information, training and search aids, tips and tricks to facilitate searching—all link to a wealth of information on Dialog.com.

Migration Update - In July 2012, Dialog General Manager Tim Wahlberg introduced the Dialog roadmap highlighting product and content development plans and the timeline for Dialog customer migration. Throughout August and into September, many scientific, technical and medical (STM) databases already on ProQuest Dialog are being reloaded to add new content and improve display and indexing. Our dedicated product development team is working closely with our product experts and customers to ensure clear focus on requirements customers want, and the Chronolog will provide regular updates on our progress.

Subaccounts facilitate billing - No more hours spent matching search sessions to clients! You can set subaccounts to subtotal your Dialog searches on monthly invoices by department, client or project to facilitate billing. Your monthly invoice will include a subaccount report, showing all sessions under the designated subaccounts. On DialogClassic Web™, specify a subaccount name up to 32 characters to which a search session is to be charged and enter this subaccount code when you log on.

August 2012

This system has been updated since our last review. During our next scheduled update, this article will be revised to include a description of the newly added content and features.

New Conference records added to Dialog Embase databases - In the May Chronolog, conference abstract records were made available in Embase® on ProQuest Dialog. Now these same records are available in Embase on Dialog (Files 72, 73, 972). More than 2,000 different conferences are covered from 2009 forward, and the archive currently contains over 650,000 such abstracts of papers presented. Approximately 200,000 abstracts are expected to be added to Embase annually.

The records can be identified by the new document type field, Conference Abstract (DT=). The Conference Abstract records may contain one or more of the following search and display fields new to Embase: Conference Title (CT), Conference Location (CL), Conference start and end date (DA) and Conference Sponsor (SP).

Reload complete on Dialog Index Chemicus database - Index Chemicus (File 302) no longer provides "structure images" and "reaction sequence diagram images" for new documents. The availability of other chemical compound images in the documents is unchanged. The Bluesheet reflects this change.

July 2012

This system has been updated since our last review. During our next scheduled update, this article will be revised to include a description of the newly added content and features.

A message from Tim Wahlberg on the Dialog website gives further details on the migration plan from Dialog to ProQuest Dialog:[8]

While some customers may choose to migrate earlier, migration will start for most Dialog customers at the beginning of Q3 2013. In Q1 2013, we will enter a period of active migration planning. This will include translation of alert profiles, account set up in the new administrative and billing systems, and training on the powerful search features. We will provide many more details in the coming months to help you prepare.

Dialog NewsRoom Annual Rollover: New database groupings forthcoming - The annual rollover for Dialog NewsRoomn (Files 990-998) will take place during June. This year we will be combining 2006-2007 data into File 996. In addition, all of the prior years will be shifted, offsetting the entire back-file collection (Files 991-995) by one year. See the list below. There will be no change in Files 989 and 990, besides the usual monthly rollover of data.

Note: There is no change or loss in the overall dates of coverage for Dialog NewsRoom, the difference being only in the databases that contain the content.

Conference Abstracts in Embase - Since papers presented at conferences often significantly pre-date published research, sometimes by a year or more, conferences can represent the most current research in any given area. So, you’ll be glad to learn that Conference Abstract records are now available in Embase® for the first time. Making this data available in Embase is a significant enhancement to the database and responds to your need to access the most current data.

More than 2,000 different conferences are covered from 2009, and the archive currently contains over 650,000 such abstracts of papers presented. Approximately 200,000 abstracts are expected to be added to Embase annually.

This data will be available on ProQuest Dialog during the week of May 14, 2012, and will be added to the Dialog file in the near future.

ICONDA updating resumed - ICONDA — International Construction Database (File 118) has resumed updating on Dialog and is no longer a closed file. Monthly updates from October 2011 through March 2012 are now online, and all associated Alerts have been run.

New: DialogSelect for Web accessibility - If you have a Dialog account but haven't used it for a while—try DialogSelect. DialogSelect combines Dialog's vast database collection and precision searching with the accessibility of the Web. The ease of a point-and-click interface guides you to over 50,000 of the most objective and respected publications and documents available online. Get the facts, figures and statements you need for a complete picture, quickly and easily without knowledge of Dialog command language.

April 2012

This system has been updated since our last review. During our next scheduled update, this article will be revised to include a description of the newly added content and features.

New Emtree thesaurus available for Embase files on legacy Dialog - The 2012 version of the EMTREE thesaurus on Embase® replaces the 2011 version. A list of terms added to the Emtree 2012 thesaurus is available for download.

An addendum to the February Chronolog - The journal “Platts Renewable Energy Report” from The McGraw Hill Companies Publications Online (File 624), mentioned in the article "Finding the best sources across industries" under ProQuest Dialog Updates, has closed. The full-text archive is still available in File 624, and Platts continues to cover renewable energy-related issues in “Power in Asia,” “Power in Europe,” and “Electric Utility Week.” These energy publications are all published by McGraw-Hill Platts.

March 2012

This system has been updated since our last review. During our next scheduled update, this article will be revised to include a description of the newly added content and features.

MEDLINE® has been reloaded with the 2012 MeSH® by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) on both legacy Dialog and ProQuest Dialog. This year 454 descriptors were added; 42 were changed and 15 were deleted. See the list at the NLM. The MeSH descriptors in all records now match the new MeSH thesaurus.

ToxFile® has also been reloaded with the 2012 MeSH on both ProQuest Dialog and legacy Dialog.

“Versioning” is a model of publishing whereby publishers release multiple versions of the same article, sometimes in quick succession and sometimes almost as soon as the original article has been published. To associate versioned articles with each other, the NLM is now creating an individual citation for each article’s version and assigning the same accession number to each one with a variable version ID (e.g., 12345678v2, 12345678v3, 12345678v4, etc.) Note the first in a series of versions has no trailing ‘v1’. The Version ID supplied by the publisher will identify the specific version. The NLM does not expect many journals will publish versions, so the incidence of versioned citations is expected to be small. As of February 2012, there are only two citations in MEDLINE with version IDs: 20029611 has two versions and 20029614 has 10 versions. They are both from the journal PLoS Currents.

Japanese legal status is now available in INPADOC/Family and Legal Status (File 345) on Dialog. Legal status events for Japanese patents and utility models dating back to the beginning of April 2011 were initiated in week 201204. Some examples of events to be included are decisions to grant, fee payments, and request for licenses.

February 2012

This system has been updated since our last review. During our next scheduled update, this article will be revised to include a description of the newly added content and features.

We recently completed migrating DataStar customers to ProQuest Dialog, and are now planning for migration of Dialog customers in 2012. As we prepare to load many more databases on ProQuest Dialog, we are also building a new patent application that will transform the way users make connections across the patent and non-patent literature. Additionally, we are adding new pricing plans to increase flexibility for our customers.

The MEDLINE database on ProQuest Dialog and legacy Dialog (Files 154, 155) is in the process of being reloaded to accommodate changes to the MeSH Thesaurus. On legacy Dialog, updates and Alerts will begin to be processed soon. During this "catch up" period, customers will receive Alerts at a greater frequency, and they may contain more records than usual.

Patent searchers can celebrate the new year with the addition of Japanese legal status to INPADOC (File 345). As one of the four major patenting sources (US, EP, WO, JP) in the world, Japanese legal status has been on patent researchers' "must have" list. Beginning in week 201204, legal status events for Japanese patents and utility models dating back to the beginning of April 2011 will be available. Some examples of events to be included are decisions to grant, fee payments, and request for licenses. Watch for this much requested and anticipated legal status data online in INPADOC on Dialog in early February 2012.

Starting this month, granted patent and weekly published applications in CLAIMS®/U.S. Patents (Files 340, 341 and 942) are now updated weekly only. Bibliographic and chemical indexing updates, previously updated monthly, will now be included in the weekly updates. As a result, monthly Alerts currently set up to run against File 340 monthly bibliographic, and File 341 and 942 monthly indexing updates are no longer available. Note user-defined, calendar-based Alerts are not affected.

The DWPI manual coding system annual revision has now been completed and is being used by the editorial teams to code records appearing in the database from DWPI Update 201201 onward. The editorial team consistently applies DWPI manual codes to new inventions across all 47 authorities covered in the database.

November 2011

This system has been updated since our last review. During our next scheduled update, this article will be revised to include a description of the newly added content and features.

CLAIMS®/U.S. Patents (Files 340, 341, 942) are now current and back on their regular twice-weekly updating schedule. Monthly updates were put on hold during the catch-up period but will resume shortly.
Users with Alerts in File 340 have received regular Alerts during the catch-up period at no charge. The twice-weekly Alert schedule was resumed with the Alerts for October 4, and these Alerts are charged at the rate listed in HELP RATES 340 or according to the terms of your Dialog contract.
CLAIMS®/Current Patent and Legal Status (File 123) updating is still on hold, but the publisher expects to resume updating in the near future.

The European Patent Office (EPO) made various changes over the past year to the collection of Japanese patents in the INPADOC/Family and Legal Status (File 345) database. Such reprocessing changes generally go through the Dialog updating process without side effects. However, a series of recent format changes caused unanticipated problems with indexing and retrieval for some documents. These involved the conversion of Japanese patents with kind T (JP T) to kind A (JP A).
The JP T to JP A changes were originally provided by the EPO in two phases. Phase 1 was sent in week 201126 and affected Japanese patents from 2000 forward. Phase 2 was sent in week 201140 and covered Japanese patents prior to the year 2000. To correct the format issues, approximately 400,000 records were replaced in the special update UD=201126A. A second group of 200,000 records were replaced in the special update UD=201140A. The bulk of the affected records have now been restored. Users with Alerts in File 345 were sent Alert results for the two special updates at no charge. Also, as a result of the correction process, ongoing updates were delayed for a number of weeks. We expect to be fully caught up with updates by late-November.

October 2011

This system has been updated since our last review. During our next scheduled update, this article will be revised to include a description of the newly added content and features.

In 2011, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center Database) (File 1) introduced additional source coverage, as well as enhancements to existing content. This year there will also be a reload to the current Related Terms Thesaurus, which hasn't been updated since 2008.
As part of these changes ERIC has provided a full annual reload to the database on Dialog; therefore, Dialog Accession Numbers have been reassigned based on the Publication Date of the record, rather than a sequential number based on the updates. ERIC will provide a complete reload each year. The database design remains the same.

The annual rollover for Dialog NewsRoom was completed in September. This year 2004 and 2005 data will be combined into File 997. In addition, all prior years will be shifted offsetting the entire backfile collection (Files 991-996) by one year. See the list below. There will be no changes in Files 989 and 990 besides the usual monthly rollover of data.

INPADOC/Family and Legal Status (File 345) now has Japanese classifications and the English translated abstract from Patent Abstracts of Japan. The EPO (European Patent Office) added the new data in update week 201131 and also introduced a new format for U.S. classifications. The search and display of the new data are described and illustrated below.

Japanese classifications consist of FI Terms (based on the IPC version 4 classification with enhancements) and F-Terms (a matrix classification developed by the Japanese Patent Office. The FI and F-Terms are displayed under the label “National Class”: with FI terms followed by F-Terms. Both types of terms are searchable using the prefix JC=. F-terms consist of two parts — the theme and the viewpoint which are separated by a slash. Dialog's cascade function allows searching just on the theme (e.g., JC=2C056/EA13 or JC=2C056). FI terms can be searched much like IPCs, as the whole class code including enhancements or cascaded at the 4th and 8th positions, e.g.,

JC=B41J-003/04 101Y

JC=B41J-003

JC=B41J

The English translated abstract in Japanese patents follows the standard search and display for abstracts with the suffix /AB. Note that the abstract may not be present in all records.

The INPADOC update for week 201131 also includes some improvements to the U.S. classification. The new format for U.S. class codes uses the standard nine-digit number and includes trailing letters indicating if the class is Original. Primary, Secondary, or cross-reference (X). View search...It is also displayed with the label “National Class.” U.S. class codes, whether in old or new format, are searchable using CL=. For example, CL=427115000S (EPO-provided) and CL=427115000 (standard format) will retrieve the same record.

September 2011

This system has been updated since our last review. During our next scheduled update, this article will be revised to include a description of the newly added content and features.

According to the Dialog Chronolog, "TRADEMARKSCAN® U.S. — State (File 246) has been reloaded with refreshed data."[20]

May 2011

This system has been updated since our last review. Dialog representatives have stated publicly that Dialog hopes to eventually migrate all DataStar and Dialog product users over to ProQuest Dialog. No end date for this transition has been announced, but according to the May issue of Dialog Chronolog, the company representatives “have started to communicate with DataStar customers about the process for migrating to the new service.”[21]

April 2011

This system has been updated since our last review. During our next scheduled update, this article will be revised to include a description of the newly added content and features.

According to the Dialog website, "CLAIMS®/U.S. Patents databases (Files 340, 341, 942) have been updated with all of the 2010 reload enhancements through July 29, 2010. This 2010 release includes the following enhancements:"[22]

March 2010

In March 2010, Dialog/ProQuest announced that Chinese full-text patent information would become available on Dialog starting in early April. According to the announcement, this new database will offer access to Chinese patent publications from 1985 forward. It will also include clipped (representative) images.

The database created by Scipat and Matrixware using statistical machine translation technology combined with human-assisted intellectual processing. According to Dialog, this method "outperforms other machine translations in readability, content and technical translation." Legal status information will also be included in the database.